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By Debbie Schlussel
For all the attacks on SUVs by environmentalists and phonies like Arianna Huffington and Laurie David, one thing remains constant: death rates in compact cars are the highest.
That’s what the latest National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s report, released yesterday, says for the gazillionth time. As AP reports:

People love compact cars as gas prices soar, but there’s a sobering cost: The government says they have the highest fatality rate.
Compacts had a fatality rate of 17.76 per 100,000 vehicles in 2004, followed by compact pickup trucks with 16.87 and subcompact vehicles with 16.85, according to a report Monday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Large vans had the lowest rate, 9.34, while pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles had rates of about 15 deaths.
The report examined fatality data from 1997 to 2004 to compare death rates among different types of vehicles. It reaffirmed past studies that found smaller and lighter vehicles more vulnerable to fatalities compared with their counterparts.
“You can never repeal the laws of physics, and a smaller, lighter vehicle is always at a disadvantage no matter how many safety features are built into it,” said Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Virginia-based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
***
Rader, whose organization has conducted similar studies, said even with “all the air bags in the world,” smaller and lighter vehicles in a category typically have higher death rates than larger models in the same category.

11 Responses

We still have a free country. If someone wants to drive a truck, car, SUV, JEEP, motorcycle, or anything in between, they should be free to do that providing they pay for the gasoline themselves and not ask taxpayers to pay for their gasoline.

I was going to contend that Europe, which basically uses small cars, have a lower death rate, but http://www.safecarguide.com/exp/statistics/statistics.htm does not support that assumption!!!
So while bigger cars are safer according to the statistics, when I think of the record profits Exxon Mobil is reporting and the fact that the automobile industry has NOT come up with a more fuel efficient car, I don’t think that the declining American auto industry has our safety in mind—wonder how many shares of Exxon and BP the CEOs of Amerikkka’s auto behemoths have in their porfolios???

How about blaming the democrats for shutting down the domestic oil industry that has forced us to rely on terrorists for our oil supplies and lowered our standard of living by paying higher prices for energy?
There is no oil shortage if we allowed oil companies to drill for the stuff here in the good old USA.
I do agree that the oil companies are price gouging but that is the fault of congress for allowing the original Rockefeller oil monopoly to once again merge into 4 companies that are nothing more than the old Standard Oil Monopoly of the 1900’s.
With no competition, very few oil refineries they are able to manipulate oil prices with impunity by reducing the supply.
Our political leaders have been bought off by the Rockefeller’s and do not have the balls to start anti-trust proceedings.

Actually, the oil companies are not gouging. If you look at ExxonMobile’s profit margin, it is pretty low at ~10%. Compared to other type of companies likes banks (15%) or pharmaceuticals (18%), their return is not nearly as good. The raw profit numbers are so big because their revenue is so large.
I agree that we should be drilling in the US. If President Clinton had not vetoed the drilling bill in the mid 90’s, we would be getting an additional 1 million barrels/day from ANWR by now. Add to that all of the untapped potential we have in the Gulf and off of the East and West coasts and our strategic position for oil would not be as precarious as it is now. If the environmentalist wackos would get out of the way, we could tap those reserves. Deep-sea drilling is quite safe as the Gulf platforms have demostrated for years.

I have a 19703 40 Duster 727 rear with 5600 miles on the odo. I have to put lead additives in to prevent the pinging and octane boot too. I love this car too, because it was made in Deb’s home town. Detroit! Not Mexico or China. Man the dealers love my car and is offering $25k for it. I also have a Toyota Corolla too, and this car was made in Kentucky. I was laughing when I heard this.

King Of All Crap, “I have a 19703 40 Duster 727 rear with 5600 miles on the odo.”
19703? Is that a car from the future? Only 5600 miles? Has it been sitting on blocks in your yard or something, Kingy?…LOL!

ScottyDog, I am not quoting any oil industry propaganda, i guess you never heard of the phrase “adjusted for inflation”, Gas cost 30 cents in 1950, today it’s $2.34, if you want to use the inflation calculator go to http://www.westegg.com/inflation. I also know that you pay a lot more for gas in california, could it be that you have a lot more cars and people than somebody in nebraska, you know the law of supply and demand. yea let’s go back to the 70’s with price freezes so we have to wait in lines for gas. I went to that consumer web site and it is all over the place with its reasons for high prices, typical consumer rights, anticapitalist website

Smokey
Do yourself a favor and read the article about the $3.00 gas prices investigative report. It outlines how the oil companies have been shutting down oil refineries so they can create gasoline shortages.http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/energy/rp/5083.pdf
In California, Shell oil company tried to shut down the Bakersfield refinery without even trying to sell it and said it was because of profit margins.The AG investigated and found it was making huge profits but Shell wanted to limit supply so they could raise the price of Diesel and unleaded by limiting supply.Ask yourself why a company would want to close an oil refionery worth about a billion dollars, and not even try to sell it.
Look, I am a conservative but what the oil companies have been doing is nothing short of criminal. There are only 4 major oil companies in the USA and they manipulate prices in league with OPEC.Our Congress has allowed the monopolistic merging of oil companies resulting in a cartel. In 1911 Standard Oil was broken up into 23 oil companies but we have come full circle and now there are only 4 majors controlled by the Rockefellar Family Trust.
It is not just FTCR that has been investigating this cartel. Jerome Corsi has just written a book called Black Gold Stranglehold: The Myth of Scarcity and the Politics of Oil. He exposes the notion that oil is a fossil fuel and that there is a shortage all being promoted by the greens funded by proxies setup by the oil companies.http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47738
Congress and politicians of both parties are responsible for the mess we are in. They have allowed the same monopoly that was broken up in 1911 to return by merging of the 23 companies mandated by the Justice department anti trust action.
I am looking at wholesale unleaded gas prices today which are at $1.79 up from February which were at $1.60 and all 3 stations near my home are charging $2.79 or higher today. If that is not gouging I do not know what is.
If they were making 10%, pump prices should be around $2.00 including state and federal taxes.

As a former SUV driver myself (my lease just ended a couple months ago), I have no place to complain about people owning/driving them. That being said, I still can’t stand all the annoying soccer mom/corporate a-holes weeving in and out of traffic while yammering on their cell phone while in their SUV.